"Light at Heart" by Maria Metlitskaya, summary Automatic translate

Maria Metlitskaya’s collection of short fiction, "Light at Heart," was published in 2020. The book offers a panoramic view of human destinies. Behind the outwardly mundane, it conceals profound dramas, family secrets, and unexpected acts of compassion. The author explores the lives of ordinary women, who often make difficult choices between duty and personal happiness. These texts lack pathos, but are filled with genuine empathy for human frailties. The book is part of the author’s well-known series, "Behind Other People’s Windows. Prose by M. Metlitskaya."

Overcoming loneliness in the provinces

In the story "House of Creativity," ceramic artist Nina leaves Moscow for a cold provincial boarding house. She’s fleeing a painful affair with a popular artist who is firmly married. Nina struggles with domestic instability and the abuse of the rude waitress Zoika. Work helps her escape. Nina enthusiastically paints a vibrant winter service set, "Winter. Mood," in cobalt and silver.

Soon Nina falls ill. To her surprise, it is Zoyka who unexpectedly shows concern. A waitress brings hot tea, jam, and medicine. A frank conversation ensues. Zoyka reveals that she gave birth to a son, Vovka, with a visiting Moscow artist. Zoyka sees a photograph on Nina’s nightstand. She recognizes Nina’s lover as the father of her son. Their shared misfortune brings the former rivals closer together, healing Nina from her former attachment. Nina recovers and finds peace with the quiet artist Ivan Skorikov, leaving with him on a small train.

Secrets of the Past

The story "Strange Woman" tells the story of Vlada, a strong-willed woman nicknamed "the iron lady." At a fiftieth-birthday celebration at her dacha, she recalls her youthful love, Sasha. Vlada’s father cruelly intervened in their relationship and humiliated Sasha. Afterward, the young man suddenly left for Lake Baikal. Vlada married the well-off Pavel, but she remained bitter about Sasha’s "betrayal" for the rest of her life.

In reality, Sasha had been diagnosed with blood cancer. He hid the truth, not wanting to make young Vlada’s life a torment. Sasha went to the Siberian taiga to live with the forester Prokofich. There, he found happiness with a simple woman, Lena, raising her son. When the disease returned, Lena carefully cared for him until his death. Vlada only later realized the value of her family. Her husband, Pavel, was in a terrible accident and barely survived. This event helped Vlada let go of old grievances.

The saving warmth of ordinary people

The story "Evergreen Lyubochkin" centers on the incompetent plumber Nikolai Lyubochkin. At forty-seven, he’s hospitalized with a heart attack, left completely alone. His first wife, Svetka, and adult daughter, Dasha, refuse to help him. His second wife, Raya, tired of his carelessness, also cut him out of her life. The capricious Olya Melentyeva was Lyubochkin’s greatest passion. She, too, drove him away for the pugnacious athlete.

Lyubochkin is helped by hospital cafeteria worker Galina Smirnova. She endured a difficult life with her late alcoholic husband and now suffers from loneliness. Galina buys Nikolai clothes, brings him home-cooked meals, and supports him. After his discharge, Lyubochkin comes to her home with a bouquet of carnations. Simple conversations and mutual empathy give them both hope for a future together.

Difficult choices and life’s storms

The heroine of the story "Love — Loveless," Lyuba, is married to Vova, a charming but unreliable visionary with a penchant for alcohol. Lyuba’s mother scolds her daughter for moving to the Moscow region from a comfortable apartment in Nizhny Novgorod. Vova dreams of getting rich in a joint business with the German investor Odo Prepper.

At dinner at an expensive restaurant, Vova gets drunk. A German, Odo, charmed by Lyuba, unexpectedly offers her his hand and a life of luxury in Europe. Lyuba steadfastly refuses and takes her drunken husband home. The next day, Odo sends her a huge basket of lilacs. Vova, however, gives him modest carnations. Lyuba hides the expensive basket under the table and embraces Vova. She understands: she can’t trade her wayward husband for wealth.

Lessons of Mercy and Lost Youth

The story "Why Do You, Girls…" is dedicated to the elderly shop teacher Zinaida Vasilyevna, nicknamed "Trudyashka." The schoolgirls tease her about her unrequited crush on the gym teacher, Sergei Anatolyevich, who preferred to flirt with the young Englishwoman Svetochka. On May 9th, the students are astonished to see the medals and decorations on her jacket. Zinaida fought in the war and fought in the partisan movement. During the war, she lost her only love, Petya.

When Zinaida breaks her leg, the girls visit her in her squalid little room. They see a portrait of a beautiful young Zinula in military uniform. Years later, the mature heroine meets an aging gym teacher. The elderly teacher now lovingly cares for the ailing Zinaida Vasilyevna. Thus, he teaches his former students a long-overdue lesson in compassion.

Life for itself

The story "Love of Life" tells the story of Tomochka, a beautiful and selfish woman. In 1933, she begins an affair with a married factory manager. After giving birth to a girl, Tomochka coldly abandons her in the maternity hospital. The man takes his daughter into his family, sacrificing his career. Tomochka is evacuated, where she lives comfortably at the expense of the amorous collective farm chairman, and then secretly escapes to Moscow.

She later marries a wealthy dentist, but after his arrest, she takes her things and moves in with her aunt. After changing several patrons, Tomochka falls ill and loses her breast. Many years later, Tomochka tries to meet her adult daughter. She is driven away by the widow of the deceased Director. The daughter secretly sends money to her mother. Tomochka dies quietly on a bench near Patriarch’s Ponds in old age, retaining a remarkable lightness of being until her last day.

Confession at the funeral meal

The title story, "Light at Heart," tells the story of childhood friends Tanya, Galka, and Zhanna. Every year, they go to the cemetery to visit their mothers’ graves, after which they gather in Tanya’s kitchen. The feast develops into a difficult confession, revealing the sins of the previous generation.

Galka confesses a family secret. Her aunt, Shura, gave birth to a sick child by her own uncle in her youth, after which she fled the village. She raised Galka solely to atone for this sin. Zhannochka tells about her mother. She was a doctor and concealed the fatal diagnosis of her lover’s wife, hoping to quickly take the man for herself.

Tanya reveals her secret. Her mother sold someone else’s diamond ring, entrusted to her by a neighbor before his death. The money saved the family from the post-war famine. Having aired their grievances, the friends forgive their mothers. They understand that they committed sins for the sake of their children’s survival.

Correcting the wrong path

In the story "God’s Gift," the middle-aged couple Nathan and Fira receive their long-awaited daughter, Rozochka. The spoiled girl embarks on a slippery path: she commits thefts, falls in with bad company, and ends up in prison. Nathan’s father dies of a heart attack after receiving a court summons.

After her second stint, Rozochka returns gravely ill. Pavel’s neighbor takes her to the village of Gribanovka, where Rozochka is baptized under the name Raisa. Church community and genuine compassion transform the heroine. Raisa marries a choir director, gives birth to two children, and becomes a strict but loving mother. Before her death, her mother, Fira, visits Nathan’s grave and tells of her daughter’s prosperous fate, concealing her conversion for the sake of her late husband’s peace.

The power of memories

The story of "Associations, or a Woman’s Life" is filled with the heroine’s reflections on the fleeting nature of time and the value of memory. Memories of her childhood in the countryside, the birth of her son, and the passing of loved ones seamlessly transition to a nineteenth-century story inspired by Elena Molokhovets’s cookbook.

A young, penniless woman marries a wealthy widower. Initially miserable in a cold house with a mentally ill sister-in-law, she finds salvation in housekeeping. The heroine transforms her life, gives birth to children, experiences a fleeting passion for a neighbor, the ruin of her husband, and the gradual loss of her beauty. The story ends with the fading of her world, a reminder of the fragility of human existence.

The Snow Queen’s Fatal Infatuation

The collection concludes with the story "Greta." Anya loved her aunt Greta, the youngest daughter of the famous Moscow German jeweler Grigory, more than anyone else in the family. The cold beauty cared for her ailing father, having inherited all his wealth in his will. Greta gave part of the money to her dispossessed relatives to buy a house, assuaging the grievance.

A grown-up Anya becomes a doctor. She falls in love with a Korean man, Kim, who is being treated in her department. He is homeless. Wanting to help her beloved, Anya secretly takes Kim to Greta’s dacha in Malakhovka. Due to her father’s sudden illness, Anya misses her beloved for a month. Finally, she reaches the dacha. There, Anya finds Kim and Greta joyfully dousing themselves with water from a hose. Realizing that a romance has begun between them, Anya leaves. Instead of pain, she feels sudden relief and freedom.